Tim May

Bluegrass Renaissance Man Photos by Madison Thorn  The small village of Pegram, Tennessee sits about 20 miles west of metropolitan Nashville on I-40. Take exit 192, drive north on McCrory Lane North, and turn left onto US 70 at Eddie’s Market. Drive west, and after the light at Hannah Ford Road is the Musical Heritage Center of Middle Tennessee (established 2008). The brainchild of Gretchen Priest-May and Tim May, it’s an unassuming one-story stone-and-clapboard 120-year-old building that has its own history: once a bank, once a post office, once a family market, and now—as the Fiddle & Pick—a frequent gathering spot for devotees of bluegrass, old time, jazz, and Irish music.  Tim May is not a musician who is easily categorized. He’s more in the mold of a modern Renaissance artist: a performer, a session player, a sideman, a teacher, a clinician, a singer, a songwriter, a repairperson, a luthier, a musical historian, a collector, and an author, and he generall